Receive Your Child from the Lord
The Three R's of Parenting (2018)

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Good to see all of you here this morning, it’s been a great week. You’re looking at the church. If you’re visiting for the first time, you’re going what’s wrong with this place, it’s, the lego place, it’s the place that we’ve been doing kidzfest all week because we love kids and we love serving families that have kids. And so this whole week, we had over two hundred forty five children this week in our kidzfest, and it took over a hundred volunteers, so we basically had an adult for every two children serving that’s an awesome week

We decided some years ago when we put this event on that we should begin a new series that following sunday, that would address certain needs in the family. So today we’re talking about the three r’s of parenting, and we’re not talking about reading, writing and arithmetic, but we are talking about what the bible says about parenting, and we’ve entitled these three phases, these three r’s as receive, raise and release

today we’re going to talk about how to receive your child from the lord and then in the following weeks we will cover the next two r’s but today focusing on this idea of of receiving your child and understanding the importance of knowing that you’re a divinely called person to receive the next generation from the lord and that’s what we’re talking about today

now everyone has an opinion about parenting whether you’re single or married and with kids or without kids or you’ve already raised your kids we all have opinions about how you should raise kids here are a few of them that i found on the internet when i was googling this question here’s a good one ninety percent of parenting is thinking about when you can lie down again and i’m sure a lot of our volunteers on thursday night after we finished this weekthey were just like i don’t really want to go anywhere can we just lay here and so some parents can really relate to that here’s one from jerry seinfeld having a two year old is like having a blender that you don’t have a top for and that is so true we have two year olds in my household now they’re my grandchildren and they were at my house yesterday all of my family my grandchildren were at my house yesterday and and this is so true what jerry said is so true here’s one from david frost having one child makes you a parent having two kids makes you a referee some of you have that look on your face like yeah, that happened on the way to church this morning he touched no I didn’t yes you did you touch me and so we know what that’s like do these kids hate each other? if you raise them right they’ll love each other here’s a good one parenthood the scariest hood you’ll ever go through for people that haven’t had kids yet parenting was much easier when i was raising my non existent kid hypothetically then you have one here’s one from p j o’rourke everybody knows how to raise kids except for the people who have them

so we all have opinions about parenting and today we’re going to look and see what god says about it what god say about this call to be parents. Now i’ve heard a lot of parents say i wish my children would have come with an owner’s manual like when i came home from the hospital seems like they should have handed me a book that says do this and well actually i believe we do have an owner’s manuel it’s god’s word he’s the creator he made us i think he has something to say about how we should raise children and there’s a lot to say in the bible there’s a lot to understand in the bible and so i think god’s word is really kind of like the owner’s manual he’s the owner and if we recognize that their children are gift from the lord that we receive them as a gift from the lord then we would want to look at his book and see how do we do this

now i know some of you might be checking out right now and saying ok, it’s the parenting series again and i came because i want to see the children’s program and now the guy’s going talk about parenting and i’m not a parent but hear me out for a second all of us started out as kids, right? So you should be able to relate and here’s the thing if you’re single right now someday you may be a parent you might be a parent so take notes for the future. The other thing is your single right now you can go ahead and start helping us because we’re outnumbered here people i don’t know who you people are but there’s something in the water i don’t know what’s going on, but you’re bringing a lot of kids to this church and we need help in the nursery and in all the children’s programs and so if you’re single and you’re energetic you need a workout, we’ll save you some money. You don’t have to go to the gym will put you to work right here. So singles, we need you married couples who haven’t had kids yet it will be good practice, you know, until you have kids take notes.

And what about grand parents? You’re saying we’ve already done our due. We’re tired now. You are the people. Listen, you’re the experts all the twenties and thirties and forty something families are looking to the grand parents of the fifty, sixty seventies and beyond as mentors, they need you. We’re in a world now where the generations aren’t living close together and there’s this loss of the elders in the church and in the community raising up the younger families. So we need grandparents to stay plugged in on this so that we’re all on board when it comes to this. This idea of parenting.

So this series is for all of us now, for those of you that have had children and you brought that first one home. Do you remember that? Remember that first time you found out that you were expecting? Andduring the nine months you probably did what robin and i did my wife and i did was we bought a book and we studied how big is the child now it’s the size of a peanut and it can do this and we looked at pictures probably today you don’t buy a book you do something on google or something but that’s we did we bought a book and so i was constantly reading it to robin saying well he or she is this big now and and i used to talk to the child i did this on all of our children i would go hello i am your father you’ll see me soon i’m looking forward to it and i would tell them i love them we’d be laying in bed at night and robin would say put your hand right here so this is there’s this buildup little by little i feel like the mother’s got more of it than the father but we’re both kind of involved and we’re expecting baby but nothing prepares you for that little face that little body comes out and you look at it and instantly you’re going we’ve been expecting we’re excited we’re fired up and then you see and you go oh no and you feel this terror come over you like i’m responsible for this what do i do now? i’ve read the books you feel the weight fall on you You just do.

I remember when my oldest son steven was born and my mom moved in with us for the first two weeks to help my wife and my wife was so thankful my mom told her so here’s, what you do about this here’s how you help a little boy with this problem and here’s how you bathe them because we’re all like it might break and how do you hold it? My mom is like give me that baby and sticks it in the kitchen sink and, you know, start scrubbing stuff , you know, and so robin’s looking at her but she for two weeks my mom was her mentor and then mom says, i got to go home now honey and here’s, my wife stand at the door with tears pouring down your face, holding the baby crying because her mother in law’s leaving. I mean, how often does that happen? It is because all of a sudden, this is our baby, but not really it was always the lords that’s what i want you to get that’s what we’re talking about right now,

receive your children, receive your child as from the lord we’re going to unpack that now looking at the book of psalms looking at Psalm one twenty seven this is one of the fifteen psalms of ascent or songs of ascent these fifteen psalms from psalm twenty two psalm thirty four were sung as people climbed up mt zion as they climbed the steps up to the temple in preparation of worship so they didn’t come to receive worship but they came preparing and bringing their worship and so psalm twenty seven is one of these this one really focuses on how the lord wants to build your house and how you must rely on him and if you try to build your house yourself you’ll fail it’ll be in vain

as we look at this psalm written by king solomon i believe as we look at this we will see three steps on on how to receive your child from the lord let’s dig in unless the lord builds the house those who build it labor in vain unless the lord watches over the city the watchman stays awake in vain it is in vain that she arises up early and goes late to rest eating the bread of anxious toil for he gives to his beloved sleep behold children are a heritage from the lord the fruit of the womb a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth blessed is the man who feels his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate and this is god’s word amen

looking at three steps on how to receive your child from the lord here is the first recognize your need for god’s power for god’s authority for god’s power for his strength to be a mommy and a daddy to be one who’s entrusted with a child let’s look at verses one and two let’s focus there it first starts off with the negative idea that you might try to build your house on your own, because unless the lord builds your house now we’re not talking about the building you know we talk about this church all the time what’s the church where’s the church it’s not the bricks it’s not the steeple it’s the people you’re the church, you’re the church what’s the house it’s your family unless the lord builds your family, you labor in vain you can work, work, work to build your family and lose your family if you do it in your own power you do it according to your own wisdom worldly wisdom you can work, work, work and lose it unless the lord builds it

who do you want to build your family? I want the lord to build my family. Could you make that determination right now? Decide in your heart i’m going to rely on the lord for my family, you know it’s one thing to ruin your life by making your own decisions apart from the lord, but it is a whole other thing to ruin the next generation, your children’s to ruin their life because you’ve decided to be in rebellion against god will you depend on god’s power to build your house? unless the lord builds the house the lord builds it’s the word LORD is in all caps in the english translation, which means it’s the covenantal name of god? unless Yahweh builds the house

this week we chose the theme for kidzfest. Every year we try to look and see what’s going on with children, what are they watching cartoons or at the movies or whatever what’s culturally relevant that we could then write music and drama and decorate our building so that we gain a hearing from the children that we can present bible stories and ultimately the gospel of jesus christ to kids? And so this year we noticed that the kids were watching this lego movie, and i didn’t even realize that this master builder thing was a thing and so i’ve never even heard of it i’m a grandparent now so i know some of the cartoons because i am forced to watch them i bought this big screen tv by the way people it took me forever it was one of my last holdouts but my kids kept saying to me why do you keep squinting when you’re watching the tv I was watching the prices so i got this big screen tv but now i still can’t watch it every time the grandkids come over i’m up on netflix and i’ve got it all set up so i know netflix you can go like gary grandkids every time i turn it on its on grandkids so all of my netflix selections are all cartoons so you would think i’d be up to speed but i didn’t know anything about master builders

so i go on amazon when i heard that we were doing this and i said i want to get a tshirt so i can greet at the front door and i found out man you just order master builder right there on a tshirt with legos and i got this cool tshirt so i’ll stand in the door all week greeting people that came in maybe you remember and i would ask the kids what’s it say, on my tshirt they go, master builder, i would say, oh, so i’m the master builder and they go no! Pastor gary god is the master builder. your kids got it this week. God is the master builder you’re not mom, you’re not dad. God is the master builder let him build your house. And so we taught them about how god wants to build in their life.

this is what the psalmist is talking about. Unless the lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. in other words, you’re working according to your own strength, and you’ll fail

In proverbs fourteen one it says, a wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands. Who is the foolish mother who is the foolish father it’s, the one who does it according to their own power, their own authority, it’s like tearing your own house down and then he says this idea of it is the lord. Unless the lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. And so it’s vain for you to be worrying and stuff over your kids unless you entrust the lord to watch. the lord watches in other words yahweh keeps literally in the hebrew the idea of protects so he builds and he protects

i remember when we first moved to wilson we bought a little one and half story house and three bedrooms up one master bedroom down and so in our master bedroom is at the back of the house so there’s the front door it’s alright back and so we’re back here and robin was freaking out because we just moved down here stephen was five jonathan was two and erin was one we had them all like in one big wave coming up through our house you know but those were their ages when they first moved here so we had those monitors in their room you know so you can listen to every sound you could hear them breathing because they were upstairs

one night on halloween someone threw a pumpkin through the front window of our house and it crashed through the front window rolled across the dining room table and knocked the flower the flower that she had there knocked it off rolled all the way into the kitchen can you imagine what that sounded like it was about two or three clock in the morning and crash boom into the kitchen i woke up on the crash and i raised up in the bed and the last part i heard was something rolling into the kitchen i’m thinking they’re in the house you know that feeling and you look around in your own little mind and think for a second who’s in charge here wait a minute i’m the husband your wife immediately she grabs me you know what this grip is like and says what was that? And so now she’s expecting she’s not sitting there thinking she has to protect the house at least not in my house maybe some women are like that, but she was thinking you’d better do something so i very bravely stood up my underwear and went to the door and got my red softball bat going down the hall with my softball bat I lean into the laundry room right here, which is to my left and that’s where my dog sheeba the golden retriever was laying sleeping and she was laying there like you’re on your own buddy, i don’t know what that was i’m not moving

I am going through the house and let me tell you something i mean i was a believer already nobody had to convince me, but i think if i would have been an atheist i wouldhave been going lord jesus help me because i was walking down the hall and i almost beat that pumpkin to death i came in there because i’m thinking my kids were upstairs and whoever this is just between me and them and i said God help me i’m get ready to kill somebody with this baseball bat meanwhile we call nine one one we had the police there to arrest that pumpkin they pulled up in my yard like wilson police way to go, people they pulled up they had spotlights on my house, no helicopters but we got that pumpkin

here’s the thing you can’t protect your house you can’t protect your house because it’s not just someone attacking you or trying to break in your house or whatever. It’s all the stuff coming into your house, it’s all the stuff coming in through the internet and school and everywhere you cannot be parents you think you can shelter your kids from the world you cannot do it. You need the lord you need His power unless the lord watches you stay up all night being anxious and you’ll be doing it in vain.

you still need to do your job. I’m not saying you don’t need to grab a bat once in a while and get busy, but i am saying depend on the lord to watch them because he could go wherever they go he can watch over them

Here are a couple of principles i want you to get in mind the first principle is this god is the owner and we are his stewards god is the owner and we are his stewards allow me to give you a couple of verses to support this principle psalm twenty four the earth is the lord’s and everything in it the world and all its people belong to him your kids are not your kids they belong to the lord so make the right decision about this recognizing god’s ownership and then recognizing your stewardship first corinthians moreover it is required of stewards managers that they be found faithful so be faithful recognizing that you are raising god’s kids for him you’re not raising your kids you are raising god’s kids and receive them as a gift from the lord

Here is the second part of this principle is god has chosen us and you might mark that out and put you your name he’s chosen you to direct your children to follow his plan for the family he doesn’t want you raising them according to your own ideas or just kind of defaulting to the way your parents raised you i know you have sworn that you will not raise your children the way your parents raised you i know i did i used to ask my mom can i go over to my friend’s house tonight? They’ve invited me and she’d say no and i’ll be like well, why not? And she’d say because i said so and i would say to her that is not a reason when i get older I won’t say things like this i would make these proclamations watch yourself for making these proclamations when you get older and have kids I am not going to tell them stuff like you tell me because i said so then the minute stephen or jonathan asked me, can i go do this? I’d say no they’d say why something would come out of my mouth before i thought about because i said so yeah be careful that you don’t just default the way you were raised some of it’s good some of it’s not so good some of it’s terrible

raise your kids the way the lord wants you to raise them because they’re not your kids whose kids are they they’re His your whole job is to raise them up so you can give them back to him. I know sometimes you’ve been trying to turn them in a little early but you raise them for Him the book of genesis god was speaking about abraham, he says i’ve chosen him so that he will direct his children in this household after him to keep the way of the lord by doing what is right and just so that the lord will bring about for abraham what he has promised him he made certain promises to abraham but he’s i think made promises to us as mothers and fathers that if we will direct them towards the lord there are certain promises that he gives

he says to teach them to honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the lord your god is giving you now

one of the books that we give out to our parents when we do a parent child dedication service and people bring their babies up we lay hands on them and we bless the babies but really we’re commissioning the parents at that point and we give this little book by dr ted tripp entitled shepherding a child’s heart because we want people to aim at heart change more than behavior change see it’s one thing to raise good kids but it’s a whole other thing to raise godly kids and so instead of just aiming at behavior change we would have a heart change and this is a great book here’s what he says here’s a quote from that book parents must be willing to be in charge recognizing that god has called you as his agent defines your task as a parent you shepherd your child on god’s behalf so come under god’s authority and don’t try to be their buddy either daddy don’t try to be their best friend be their mommy be their mother be their father if you’ll be their mother and father when they’re small, you can be their buddy and their friend when they’re older, but if you fail to be their mother and father when they’re small, you’re putting at risk a future friendship because they will, first of all, rebel against you. But then they’ll rebel against god because you have failed to do your ordained called duty to depend on god’s power, god’s direction, god’s authority in raising them.

I want my child to like me, and so i give them choices and i lead, and i argue with them to try to convince them of things. And i tell you, it just breaks my heart to see grown men and women being defeated in a lawyer argument with a four year old because they will beat you every time. If you argue with them, they’re smarter than you people. They come out that way so stop arguing with little toddlers tell them what to do, just tell them what to do and when they ask you why ? Because i said so, because god put me in charge over you for now

I want you to see this picture if you’ll take god’s hand, i mean this, you know, metaphorically, but you say god. I believe in jesus. I want you to save me and make me a believer. I want to follow you. I want to be a child of god if you take his hand depending on his power, then when he gives you a child, receivethe child from the lord and then take that child’s hand and the whole time, father, you lead me and i’ll lead the child. So you received the child

the next week we’ll talk about raising the child and you’re raising the child towards the father. And then ultimately, in week three, we’ll talk about giving the child and releasing the child to the father. But this is what it looks like. First move, first move. Recognize you need the father’s power. They’re his kids. you need his authority power to raise them his way. Will you do it? Where do you get your parenting advice? Look, at the god’s owner’s manual depend on him for power

if you’re here this morning and you’ve never receive jesus christ as your lord and savior, listen, you can do it today. One of the things i’ve noticed about people. They might stray from god maybe they grew up going to church and then they went to college and kind of lost their faith or at least they’ve shoved it into the back and then they got married and they had a child and the child turned to them and said who is god and then they look at each other and go we need to go back to church there’s just so many people who came back to church because of a child’s question maybe that’s you you need more than the church okay it’s a good place you showed up that’s awesome you need jesus you need the head of the church i’m not the pastor here i’m the undershepherd under jesus jesus is the pastor he’s the head you need jesus you need to take his hand and depend on his power if you’ll do that will you do that then he’ll empower you to raise his kids and so receive your authority from the lord

here’s number two embrace your children as god’s gift embrace your children as god’s gift we’re in verse three now let’s unpack that behold children are a heritage from the lord the fruit of the womb is a reward and so a heritage a reward a gift your children are a gift i’m telling you there’s something about having children that will sanctify you because they reveal to you everything that’s wrong with you it’s like looking at little mirrors and go poof i know where you got that your mother robin you need to come here and talk to your kids hey

we’re grandparents now we have seven grand children we have number eight on the way really number nine because we have a little boy that only lived for fourteen hours he has already proceeded us to heaven but we have a great family the lord’s given us this wonderful gift of a great family what a blessing so now instead of saying robin go do something about your kids i say stephen go do something with Ryder here buddy he’s acting you know he’s peaceful he’s full of himself right now it’s what? My mom used to say boy you are full of yourself today so some of you kept some of our grandkids this week in KidzFest. i had all seven of them here this week. It was awesome. Maybe you had all of yours here too. I hope you did some of you kept Ryder who is stephen’s son and you told me he looks at you like this when he’s upset he does this who taught him that i go stephen no, i don’t know who taught him they come out with some of this stuff they just show up like that but they’re a gift from the lord

look at this word heritage the word heritage has to do with an inheritance that word is used over two hundred times in the old testament to describe an inheritance children are our legacy that we give back really as a gift to lord he gives us and we give it back a reward in other words your payment, your wages

whenever eve had Cain she said, i’ve made a man she said god’s given me a man who knew that was gonna happen i mean can you imagine being the first father and mother like okay there’s a baby and that’s kind of how you feel isn’t it it’s all a theory until you get one? Will you embrace them as a gift? They’re a gift understand the eternal value that god places on your child every one of these children have eternal souls that will live eternally in one of two destinations either a place called heaven or a place called hell e every child that’s born has a soul that will live forever in one of those two destinations

have you thought about that the value of a human soul and then jesus when he talks about it, he says, see that you do not despise one of these little ones don’t hate them why would we we do that instead of loving them we hate them in the way we behave, he says, for i tell you that in heaven they are angels who always see the face of my father who is in heaven god values him so much that he assigns an angel to singularly watch that child for him and that angel reports back continually to the father about the condition of that child he loves the little children jesus loves the little children right it makes you want to sing the song, doesn’t it? Jesus loves the little children all the children of the world red and yellow, black and white they’re precious in his sight jesus loves the little children of the world

but as a culture, as a people you can tell when a society when a culture is decaying and running down by the way it treats its children, there was a time in our culture when the public space, the space where television or news or movies or o school or wherever you were in public, it was child friendly the way they watched their language, the things that we would talk about if there was going to be something mature or more ugly we put it in more safe places we honored mothers and children and certain things you don’t talk about maybe no, maybe you don’t maybe you have to have grey hair like me to remember that but now there’s no child safe areas as parents we have to be continually on guard everywhere even something that’s called a movie that’s rated g will be filled with things that you really didn’t want your child to hear

he says be careful that you don’t despise them and then whenever the people were bringing children to jesus to have Him bless them and the disciples were like don’t waste his time with the children and jesus overheard it and he says you let the little children come to me in the king james said suffer the little children to come unto me for such as the kingdom of heaven the verse i have here let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for such belongs to the kingdom of god o god help you if you hinder a little child from coming to jesus, he says it would be better that you had a millstone hung around your neck and thrown into the ocean then it would be to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin oh the are a gift they are a sacred responsibility and how angry god is and how angry with righteous anger is my soul as i experienced the holy spirit within me in regards to the way our culture treats the little children

sixty million abortions since nineteen seventy three if on atom bomb dropped on virginia north carolina, south carolina, georgia, mississippi down to florida you take about ten states and killed everyone you’d have what we’ve done it’s the worst genocide ever seen in human history more babies die every year than any other cause of death and self inflicted do not despise the little ones oh my goodness

you know this church supports the wilson pregnancy center because we believe in life wilson pregnancy center i’ve been on the board of directors there we support them financially many of you volunteer there for families that have an unplanned pregnancy so that they can choose life they can either choose to raise the child themselves and if they do we help them through this agency we help them with supplies we help them with with counseling and support or we can even connect them with places where they could offer the child for adoption because there’s so many young families that are unable to have kids and we have many of them in our church who would love to adopt because they love children and they love god we want to be the kind of church that chooses life children are a gift from the lord some of you may be here because of statistics. I know that many of you are here who have already had an abortion. It was either you who had the abortion or there’s a man here it was your girlfriend, and maybe you told her to. But you’re here this morning and i’m not preaching condemnation at you. I know you might feel guilty, but here’s, what i want you to do, i want you to give that to the lord. You can’t go back and fix it now, but i want you to change your mind about life you probably already have because one of the unspoken things is that people who have experienced abortion it has wounded them for life, but i would not wound you. I would not add to your pain. Here’s what i would say to you, name the baby I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl i doesn’t matter name the baby it could have been a little boy it could have been a little girl. God loves life so much that he assigns an angel to each one. I suspect those ittle ones are being raised by jesus right now so go ahead and name them god’s already forgiven you through jesus, receive that forgiveness and grievance and if you’ve gone on and had more children tell your children about the one that’s preceded them stop keeping it a secret because as long as you keep it a secret the devil twists this knife in your gut but God wants to set you free listen

not only are those sixty million dead but there’s so many more that are wounded by what we’ve done to ourselves come on people children are what they’re an inheritance, they are a reward they’re a gift decide that you’ll agree with what god says in his owner’s manual children are a gift

charles spurgeon that great preacher of the eighteen hundreds, he says he sees children not as a penalty nor is a burden but as a favor they are a token for good if men know how to receive them and educate them they’re only doubtful blessings because were doubtful persons where society is rightly ordered children are regarded not as an encumbrance but as an inheritance and they are received not with regret but as a reward amen

dr charles kitty france says you are not managing an inconvenience you are raising a human being parenting is a sacred task that your child is a gift from the lord there’s sometimes you’ve got to say it by faith though let’s be real for a second sometimes when you’re feeding that little booger and you’ve got him in the high chair and he keeps throwing food on the floor and you know you’ve got a whole lot of work in front of you now, and you put it in their mouth, and they spit it right back in your face, you have to by faith, say, oh, honey, you’re such a gift from the lord. You have to really say it by faith, but they are. They are a gift from the lord.

When the parents of moses found out that they were pregnant, that they were expecting they were so afraid, because Pharoah in egypt had decreed that all the little hebrew baby boys were to be murdered were to be aborted. And so he instructed the hebrew midwives, if it’s a boy, kill it, leave it out, expose it, though in the river. Now let the crocodiles, whatever get rid of it. And so it was the government’s policy.

China had a similar policy. The one child policy. This has gone on and on through the centuries because satan hates your children, and whenever he gets in charge of a culture, he moves the government to make rules like that, but the parents of moses by faith kept him a secret for three months. And then when he got to be too loud and making too much noise by faith, they made a little boat out of a basket And they put him out on the river nile and his big sister, chased it down the river, and then by faith by a miracle, they saw the daughter of Pharoah adopt the baby. She was out washing in the river nile, when she found the little hebrew baby, and she raised him as her own? So he became a prince of egypt who will ultimately become the redeemer who led the people of israel out of their bondage. And it says in the book of of hebrews, chapter eleven by faith moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw that he was no ordinary child. And instead of being afraid of the king’s edict, they decided to fear god.

There is no such thing as an ordinary child. They’re all extraordinary. They’re all a gift from god. In this past week, we had several special needs children that came and some of you i was so proud to be the pastor of this church, some of you accepted an assignment of i will take care of a singular child all week. I will go to every class with them i will eat the meal with them i will go to the playground with them some of you did that because we love kids we wanted to demonstrate that but those special needs kids are often the ones who give you the most extraordinary love

there is a test to see if the child’s going to have down’s syndrome have you ever worked with a down syndrome person they’re the most positive people on planet earth easily filled with joy all the time what a gift what a gift who are we to decide that someone doesn’t deserve to live have i said enough about that did you get it? Did you get it good did you get it good

here’s number three accept your role as god’s champion receive his power receive them as a gift in verses four and five and he starts using military language like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth so children are arrows and you’re the warrior you’re the champion so aim your kids well aim them at god’s target not yours not the world’s, not yours aim them at what god wants them to be. Know your children steady them see what their strengths and weaknesses are become an expert at this gift that god has given you pray over them and listen to them and and and hear them and then help aim them at god’s purpose for their life god has a purpose for every life you are not an accident aim them at his target pull back hard aim true the are arrows in the hands of a warrior who’s the warrior you you’re fighting against the world and against the evil one and against everything that would hate your child and would diminish this extraordinary giftednes you aim them you be a warrior he says like arrows in the hand of a warrior

verse five says blessed is the man who feels his quiver what’s a quiver it’s the thing you hold the arrows in its the thing on your back that you hold the arrows in the hebrew quiver historically held five arrows and so i often kiddingly when i’m doing premarital counseling with families ask them are you planning on having five kids because the bible says you’re supposed to have a quiver full it’s a blessing that really scares a lot of people right five you know one subtraction two break even three’s addition and four finally is multiply and fill the earth you’ve gotta have four of them to multiply with man me and robin we fell short but we’re doing better as grandparents think we got a lot of them lot of grandkids

if you have a quiver full you probably drive a minivan that’s the only downside but quiver full it’s a blessing you can tell a decaying society when they start having fewer kids than replacement so that the population begins to age out because they no longer believe in being parents anymore that kid’s are an encumbrance and a problem

He says they’re a blessing they are , not just a gift they’re a blessing and you’re the champion be a champion for kids church let’s be a champion for kids in wilson county let’s be a champion for kids when we go to guatemala, when we go to guatemala, we have an opportunity to sponsor a child because they’re so poor and when they come back from guatemala, their hearts are going to be broken listen, they’re going to go to guatemala and they’re going to fall in love with those kids down there who are so thankful for the least little thing church let’s be a champion for children let’s be like warriors.

You know the scripture has instructions about this about how to raise them up. I’m going to save those for next week as we talk about raising them up, but i would to tell you this one story in conclusion about a woman named hannah, a woman named hannah she was unable to have children the bible says she was barren and and when she would go to the temple to pray she would just cry in fact the priest eli came out and thought she had been drinking she was crying so hard that nothing was coming out have you ever cried like that? like your mouths wide open but nothing’s coming out he thought she was drinking or something because of the way she was acting she’s says to him i’m barren and he prays for and she said this to the lord this was her prayer to the lord first samuel chapter one verse eleven o lord of hosts if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant but will give to your servant a son then i will give him to the lord all the days of his life and the next year she had a little baby boy named samuel she named him samuel and when he was weaned she made him a little preacher suit she made him little priestly garments and she gave him to eli the priest to live in the temple and he was raised up in the tabernacle many would say he was the greatest prophet who ever served in israel he was the last who carried all three titles until jesus who carried judge priest and prophet he was amazing what would’ve happened if god had not had a champion like hannah to entrust him to oh my goodness what was her secret if you give me a son i’ll give him to you all the days of his life

here’s the real key receive your child from the lord and give him back all the days of his life to the lord that’s your job receive him from the lord raise him up and release him to the lord that’s your job that’s your job parents will you do it? Will you launch your child towards god’s goal aiming at his target for their life recognizing his authority, seeing them as a gift

let’s pray let’s pray for our parenting but let’s pray for the children in jesus name we pray right now pray first of all lord for that person that’s here today that is just hearing that call to follow you if that’s you, my friend you’re here this morning and you’ve never turned your life over to christ that’s your first step that’s your first move in obedience after hearing this word today is to say dear lord jesus I am a sinner , pray that prayer right now right where you’re at dear lord jesus I am a sinner come into my life and forgive me of my sin i believe you died on the cross that you rose from the grave that you live today come and live in me i make you my lord and savior right now i’m turning my whole life over to you fathers do it, mothers do it! Grand parents, single person turn your life over to jesus right now and as you do that know this he came to save so he he’s ready, he’s listening he’s waiting others arehere today and you’ve received jesus as lord, but you haven’t turned your kids over to him yet you you’ve been raising them according to your own wisdom and and that’s foolish it’s like tearing your own house down to do such a thing ask the lord to build your house, turn it over to him, turn your children over. parents depend on his word on his power. Would you do it right now? And maybe you don’t have children? Maybe you are a young person pray for your parents, pray for them and submit to them. Maybe you’re a grand parent listen to the lord as he calling you to be a mentor to be more involved either in the church or in a small group and other places, whatever the lord is speaking to you right now be obedient and in prayer right now tell him yes, i will obey, i’ll repent, i’ll do it. I’ll depend on you we pray all this now in jesus powerful name knowing that he’s able in his name, we pray amen